The Qi of the World
by Omniscientearl
Summary: Ranma.Final Fantasy VII crossover. Ranmacentric in the FFVII world. Ranma is whisked away to a world where the qi around him is alive with the whispers of the dead. A few Tai Qi excersizes later, and life as Ranma knows it will change forever.


Disclaimer: I own neither Ranma One Half nor do I own Final Fantasy VII. This work is produced only for entertainment and is not intended for commercial use.

**The Qi of the World**

Ranma looked around, unsure of what to make of her situation. Just moments earlier, she had struck the dragon tap atop Jusendo to force the waters to spring upward toward Akane and her. The next thing she knew a geyser of water leapt up from the statue's mouth to blow he and Akane skyward. While Akane's body had returned to normal, and her breathing had resumed, she was blown clear in the blast. The water then suddenly receded back into the dragon's mouth, defying all laws of physics, taking Ranma with it. When she came to, she was here.

Where here was, Ranma did not know. It was hot and humid, and the sun shone in the sky without mercy. She was on a shore, with the sea water lapping at her legs. The scattered trees were tropical, though, and they were the only clue as to where Ranma might be.

'Stupid magic water,' Ranma thought, sullenly,' dropping me off in some tropical paradise, just when Akane may have come back.' She brooded there for a minute, hoping that Akane was okay, and sending a silent prayer on the light breeze as it blew past her. Standing up, Ranma looked back up at the sun, taking stock of the cardinal directions, and decided to follow the shore north until she found a port or someplace to stay until she could figure out a way to get back to Japan.

As she walked along, Ranma kept an eye inland just a bit, to make sure she didn't just walk right past a town just on the horizon. Luck was with her, however, when she spotted a city on the shore. 'Finally!' She thought, as she sped up her pace, the sun already on the horizon.

'Wow,' thought Ranma as she walked about the town,' I really did get blown into a tropical paradise. Maybe a few days off before getting back on my way wouldn't be a bad idea. Its a good thing Akane was okay before I left, I just hope someone caught her, she was still out of it. Now, to find a place to stay for a while.' She reached into her pocket on impulse, and her heart sank.

Her wallet had gone missing sometime during the fight with Saffron, or maybe even when the water had grabbed her. She knew what she had to do, and was none too proud to have to do it, but she had no supplies, and it was nearly dark. She needed to stay at a hotel, the possibility of camping no longer available this night.

She spotted some drunks coming out of a bar, and guiltily crept up behind them. Sending her hands into the drunks' pockets at higher speed than should be allowed, she quickly retreated back into an alley as she heard the men take offense at one another, apparently getting fresh with each other in their drunken state. She walked away with a small chuckle as she heard the flung accusations and the ensuing brawl.

As she walked along she looked at the two wallets she had in her hand. 'Well, might as well leave them in a place they would think to look,' she thought as she fished the money out of the wallet and dropped the two pilfered pouches by the door to the bar the men had come out of. She continued about the town for a while afterwards, looking for a decent hotel. It was a little troublesome, because, while the men spoke Japanese, several of the signs were in English.

Finally, her poor English skills spotted a building plainly labeled 'hotel'. She wearily walked up to the door and tugged it open, the light inside a welcome change to the dull light provided by the street lamps. She looked at the counter, wondering where the owner was when she heard a voice off to her right.

"Oh? A customer? Let me sink this ball and I'll be right up to help you." The owner of the voice was a middle aged man, with a cigarette sticking out of his mouth, and was currently in the middle of a pool game against himself. He deftly dropped one of the colored balls into one of the side pockets, set his cue off to the side and moseyed his way up to the counter. He took a look at her and muttered "Wutainese? Don't get a lot of them around here." In a louder voice he continued, " All right, price is clearly labeled." He held out his hand.

Ranma was a little put off by his manner, but looked down at the counter and saw a figure in bright red bubble letters. She fished the money out of her pocket and paused. It looked like no currency she had ever seen. The writing on it was Japanese, but the pictures were obviously not from a yen note. She hesitantly pulled off a few notes that equaled the amount displayed and handed them with a sinking heart to the man. The expected ridicule of using obviously fake money was not what she received.

"All right," He said as he tossed her a key from the back wall," third room on the right down the hall."

She walked down the hall, relieved to have a place to stay for the night. She was hungry, but decided not to push her luck in such a foreign place. She opened the door to her room and let out a decidedly un-Ranma like squeal of girlish delight as she spotted the obviously plush bed. She was in the air immediately, sans pants and shirt, followed by being wrapped in the softest blanket on the softest bed. Sleep took her almost instantaneously.

The next day found Ranma standing on the beach, in a decidedly different form. A hot bath that morning had returned him to his more masculine form. He was near the water, but not too close, preferring his boy side to his girl side. He spent all morning practicing in the hot sun, with the cool ocean mist keeping him from overheating. The sensations of the cool sea breeze contrasting with the harsh heat of the sun had Ranma energized beyond his norm.

He flowed endlessly from form to form, a fist cracking out in the air in perfect fluid motion, a foot snapping high in the breeze. There was no discernible pattern to his art, just the way it was intended. An ax kick that could break a person was given with such ease that it seemed he may as well read a book as run a mile.

As he neared the end of his practice, he could feel his inner reserves begin to wane. It had been a while since he had practiced with such focus. With his center so firmly in hand, he decided it would be good to cool down with several tai qi forms.

Ranma began to move his hands in a fluid manner, the motion allowing his ki to move through his body with greater ease than usual. He began to reach out to the world around him with his spirit, to gently coax the qi of the world into and through his body. It seemed odd to him, though, that with his center so firmly in place, that the qi of the world around him eluded him so.

He reached out a bit more forcefully this time, pulling the qi into his body, mingling it with his own life essence. That was when he began to hear faint whispers. Just lower than the wind, they began to crescendo in his head, as well as increase in number until there were so many that he could not discern one voice from another. His hands began to feel hot, and his eyes opened in surprise as a wave crashed about him.

She began to look around frantically, wondering what had gone so terribly wrong. The power inside of her was immense, and as she stared at her hands, she could see fire around them, growing in intensity. The heat was unbearable, and the voices were coming to a frenzied pitch, finally all screaming out at once in her mind followed by a brief silence. Then, without warning, the fire that sat in her unburned hands exploded with such force that all she knew after the flash was darkness.

"It looked like a powerful fire spell was the cause of the destruction about her." A deep voice echoed in the darkness.

"Yuffie," a stern voice called out," you can't just go and sell materia to just anyone, this girl obviously didn't know how to use it and now look what happened."

"But I've never seen her before in my life." Came a young voice. At this point, the darkness became a blur of light, as Ranma opened her eyes and tried to work up the gumption to sit.

"Quiet," this time, a young woman's voice," she's coming to." Ranma's world began to take shape around her, the light taking on a myriad of colors, followed by shapes, being finished off with a view of a woman in a pink dress with long brown hair looking down at her. The look on her face was a strange mixture of concern and confusion.

"Where ...?" Ranma's voice croaked out.

"Are you okay?" The young woman asked, her voice placing her as the one who noticed Ranma coming to.

"Not really," Ranma responded," feels like the first day fighting with pops all over again." And it was true. Her whole body was stiff and sore, her muscles aching as though she were one large bruise at the moment.

"What happened to you?" A young girl's voice called out, drawing Ranma's attention to a Japanese looking girl, with a green, sleeveless turtleneck shirt and khaki shorts. The hitai-ate belying her trade. Ranma thought for a moment before responding. This would be Yuffie, judging by the voice. "We just got into Costa Del Sol and heard an explosion on the beach, when we got there, you were near a small crater in the beach." Costa Del Sol sounded like a western language, and with this weather, she suspected she somehow ended up in South America. The only thing keeping her from believing that absurd idea was the fact that the girls were speaking Japanese.

"I was cooling down after some kata with some tai qi excersizes, I think. There's something wrong with the qi of this world." Ranma said, matter-of-factly. Only the woman with the dark brown hair seemed to understand part of what she had said.

"I've never heard of tai qi before, but what do you mean qi of the world?" She asked, confused at the two new terms used by the young martial artist. Ranma looked to her, and nearly swallowed her tongue. Whoever she was, she was quite well endowed, and her toned body and easy rest tagged her as a martial artist, and a fairly decent one at that.

"The energy of the world," Ranma began, having had to give brief explanations of some terms before," you know, just like the body has its own energy, so does the world."

"You are talking of the life stream," came the deep voice she first heard. Ranma looked down to see a large red wolf at her bedside, the source of the voice.

"The what, now?" Ranma's confused reply came.

"The life stream." The wolf repeated," It is the energy of the world around us. That is what you call qi." A talking animal was nothing new to Ranma, she took it all in stride.

"Yeah," she said lamely," that. There's something wrong with it. Tai qi basically moves your internal energies about in your body, and once the motion becomes regular enough, you can reach out to the qi of the world and allow it to move through your body. Its very relaxing. But the qi was hard to grasp, for some reason. When I did get it to cooperate, though, something strange began to happen." At this, the girl in the pink dress looked a little surprised.

"What do you mean?" She asked," what normally should have happened?"

"Normally, its like a massage, as the energies of the world rub against and mix with your own." Ranma explained," like I said, its very relaxing, and balancing. This time, I began to hear whispers."

"That would explain your eyes." Came an unexpected interruption. Ranma looked down at the wolf, confused.

"My eyes?" Ranma asked.

"I don't know what Red's talking about, but here." Yuffie said, holding out a mirror. Ranma looked into it and gasped a little. Her eyes, normally a uniform stormy gray, now had a ring of green near the pupil and seemed to glow lightly, with the same green color.

"What do you mean, Red?" Ranma asked, using the name thrown out by Yuffie. Red XIII was a little taken aback at the girl taking stock of the situation around her so quickly.

"I was hoping to make it back to my grandfather, and have him explain it a little better, but I'll give you a few bits of information that I _do_ know. The lifestream of this planet is being processed into a form of energy called mako." Red XIII began, hoping the others could piece the puzzle together given the first bit of information.

"So, pulling the energy into yourself would be like taking a dip in mako." The well endowed woman continued, her thoughts clearly on the right track.

"That's what happens to the people selected for SOLDIER." continued the woman in the pink dress.

"Just like Cloud!" Yuffie exclaimed, finally getting what Red XIII had referred to.

"Who?" Ranma asked, confused by all of the references.

"A friend of ours." The girl in the pink dress explained. " What happened after the whispers began?" She continued, sounding almost hopeful.

"Well, It started to worry me, but I didn't open my eyes until a wave hit me." She said, sounding a little perturbed by the wave." I opened my eyes, and noticed my hands were on fire. They weren't burning, but I could feel the heat. I was starting to freak out when the voices stopped. Then, the fire exploded." Ranma finished.

"That's interesting." The girl in the pink stated, obviously lost in thought. "I'm going to go down to the beach for a bit." She said, leaving suddenly. Ranma watched her go for a second, before the urge to get out of bed hit her as well. As she began to get up, the sudden breeze across her backside made her uncomfortably aware of something; she was wearing no clothes. Her face went bright pink, and she looked to the other girls in the room.

"Um," she began, embarrassed," where are my clothes?"

"Here," said Yuffie, as she handed Ranma a few shreds of cloth, and a cuff to her favorite shirt, then continued in a slightly jealous voice," We figured you could use a pair of my shorts and one of Tifa's tops, until you could go get a change of clothing." Ranma's face went a little dark, Yuffie and Tifa thought it may have been the loss of the silk clothing, judging by the scraps she now held in her hand. Ranma looked up with an obviously forced smile.

"Thanks." Ranma began, and reached for the mentioned clothes that were placed before her," I'll have to go buy some new clothes, I hadn't brought any others with me. Do you think I could I get a little bit of privacy?"

Ranma stood uncomfortably in a clothes store, looking around for something that she could buy that would fit her guy side, without being obvious to the girls around her. She was doing a terrible job of it. She looked at the girls on either side of her and sighed, she had no idea why they wanted to tag along. They had mentioned something about leaving the next day, obviously in a hurry, but willing to take a small break to relax a bit.

They had told her that neither of them had gotten much of a chance to do something relaxing in a while, and followed her to the first store she had made it to. They had taken exception to her first choice. She looked back to the clothes and heaved another sigh. They had caught her arms and dragged her to a store that had more feminine clothes than masculine, saying something about not being able to find a good boyfriend if she dressed like a boy.

After a lame explanation that she preferred men cut clothing, she got them to relent a little bit, but they still stopped her every time she reached for some new clothes, saying it wasn't cute enough. Her temper was beginning to wear thin.

After a few more rejections, Ranma, in a fit, reached over to the cashier's hot tea and threw it over herself without thinking of the consequences. He immediately regretted the decision. Tifa's top split at the shoulder and fell from his form, and Yuffie's shorts began to split, but held, barely, thanks to his thin build.

"You," Yuffie began, at a loss for words. She looked Ranma up and down, the transformation had caught her totally off guard.

"I'm a guy, damnit!" Ranma yelled, more in embarrassment now, than in anger. He was now being pinched in sensitive places, and realized just how exposed he was. He reached over and grabbed some black pants and a red, high-necked vest, and disappeared into one of the changing rooms.

He reappeared a moment later, in his new clothes, but still barefoot, and sheepishly handed Yuffie her ruined shorts.

"Sorry 'bout yer shorts." Ranma said, looking down, his cheeks red from embarrassment. Yuffie, her cheeks red as well, reached out and took them wordlessly. Tifa finally seemed to get enough courage to ask.

"How?" She began, with a single questioning word," How did you do that?"

"I'm cursed, okay?" Ranma began, not happy to have to be telling them his shame, he may have accepted that he had to keep the curse, but he didn't have to like it. Deciding not to push the obviously sensitive subject, Tifa reached down and picked up her destroyed shirt, and looked up at Ranma with an amused smile.

"That explains why you wanted larger clothes. I guess Yuffie and I were just a little too excited at the prospect of clothes shopping after so long that we got a little carried away." Tifa explained, trying to break the tension a little. Ranma reached back and tugged sheepishly at his pigtail and smiled, in spite of himself.

"Yeah," He said," It's kind of a sore spot with me, my curse, that is. I guess I'll take these, they seem comfortable enough, though maybe the two of you could help me get some shoes, huh?" He looked down pointedly at his still bare feet, then back at the two girls before him. Tifa smiled and nodded, even though shopping was a normal thing to do it somehow just took an interesting turn. Yuffie, still embarrassed that she had given a guy her shorts to wear, just nodded a little, though silently wishing she were elsewhere.

Ranma came out of the store, his feet now clad in black slippers very similar to his old ones. It had been an embarrassing moment to be sure, but at least he got off with telling them he was just cursed, and didn't have to explain it to them. He looked back at Tifa and Yuffie, as they came out of the store. He was glad they didn't pursue the subject.

"So, what brought you guys into Costa Del Sol?" He asked, never having been one to be able to sit in silence.

"We're looking for someone," Tifa began," we heard he was traveling east, so we've been going this way to find him."

"Yeah," Yuffie continued, her earlier embarrassment forgotten," we ran into him on the boat, but he managed to get away." Yuffie's mind didn't even register what she had said, she was just grabbing at anything to drive conversation away from the fact that a guy had gotten into her pants, in a manner of speaking.

"Wait," Ranma said," he got away? Why are you after him in the first place?"

"Revenge," came a deep voice from just ahead of him," now step away from the ladies, SOLDIER." Ranma looked up and saw a tall man with blonde, spiky hair glaring at him. His blue eyes had a strange green glow to them as he leveled one of the largest swords Ranma had ever seen at him.

**Author's Note**

Hello all, welcome to my newest story and newest pseudonym. It has been so long since I have written that I felt the need to start anew. What do you think? As far as I know, this is an original idea, though I could've just not read enough fanfiction over the years. I know Ranma may seem out of character a bit, but in the Ranma manga he is shown to have quite the normal side. He just seems to overdo it a bit when it comes to fighting and anything concerning his life in the long-term. My biggest clue to this is, I can't remember the chapter, but he meets a rich boy who never goes outside, and pretends to be sick all of he time. He is in his girl form, but just to help out, and to get his father back, Ranma goes as far as asking the young boy to take him, her at the time, out on a date. He does have social skills, we are just never shown how adept he is. He also seems to be a bit unaware of when he is showing off, evidenced when he helped out Gosunkugi when he was being ganged up on by some tough fellows, Gos, that is. You may not agree with me, but hey, its my fic, you don't like it? Then at least don't harass me about it, ok? This is coming to you from all the way over in Japan, where I am currently studying abroad, retaking Japanese language from year one, to reaffirm my vocabulary, let's hear it for the easiest homework load I've ever had! See you all next update.


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